Preparedness group to practice medical drill

GREENFIELD — A Hancock County group dedicated to emergency preparedness is asking residents to join in an upcoming exercise to help prepare the community should a disaster strike.

Hancock County COAD, or Community Organizations Active in Disaster, plans to gather at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Hancock County Emergency Operations Center, 640 S. Franklin St., Greenfield, to run through a hypothetical medical emergency.

The organization is a group of community stakeholders dedicated to streamlining the aid local nonprofits would offer in a crisis situation. Periodically, the organization practices its response techniques for hypothetical disasters as a way to be prepared.

Wednesday’s practice exercise, which is open to the public, focuses on the community’s response to an Indiana resident returning from a trip with symptoms of Ebola.

In the scenario, the plane the resident is traveling on stops at Indianapolis Regional Airport on Mt. Comfort Road, and the organization has been asked to organize food and shelter for the plane’s passengers.

Jim Peters, director of COAD, is hoping people from all walks of life join in the exercise.

“The more people we can get to imagine through this scenario, the better prepared we’ll be,” he said.